Jude Bellingham steered England to victory in their Euro 2024 opener against Serbia on Sunday night – and celebrated by paying tribute to The Beatles.
Jubilant England supporters serenaded the Real Madrid star with a rendition of the Beatles classic ‘Hey Jude’ as the midfielder powerfully headed home the winner here in Gelsenkirchen.
“I love the Beatles, I listen to the Beatles a lot – my style of music is a bit old, so that really suits me,” Bellingham revealed.
‘I really enjoy playing in front of the English fans, I think it’s a different experience for me because I play abroad so when I hear the English crowd every few months I really enjoy it, I feel love and I try to give that back on the field.’
Bellingham was man of the match on a nail-biting night for England as he continued his breathtaking season that saw him win LaLiga and the Champions League.
Jude Bellingham paid tribute to The Beatles after starring for England in their Euro 2024 opener
The Three Lions midfielder scored his side’s only goal of the match as they cruised past Serbia
Bellingham was serenaded by a rendition of The Beatles’ “Hey Jude” during his performance
‘I just enjoy playing football. When it comes to every single game, I just look at it that way. I don’t like to look too far into the future, but every game I like to think I can make an impact and feel like I can decide games.
“But that happens every game, instead of looking too far into the future.
‘The truth is that I really enjoy playing football, so I can do it with a fearlessness because I enjoy doing it so much, which is liberating for me.
‘It’s very special to score for England at any time, especially when it’s a match-winning goal and a goal that gets us points and can help us hopefully have a good tournament.’
Bellingham and his midfield partner Trent Alexander-Arnold dedicated a special celebration to team photographer Eddie Keogh.
“The celebration was for a game we play called ‘Wolf’ and one of the employees always holds his face like that when he doesn’t know what’s going on,” Bellingham revealed.
“So it was more of a celebration for the backroom staff who put in so much work every day and they won’t get awards like this (his man of the match trophy) or have the moments we do on the pitch. , but we really appreciate them and it is important that we maintain that atmosphere during the tournament.’
The midfielder said he listens to The Beatles (pictured) ‘a lot’ because his music style is ‘old’
Bellingham also opened up about the meaning behind his face-covering celebration with Trent Alexander-Arnold
Gareth Southgate (centre) said Bellingham is ‘writing his own script’ after another impressive display
On his star man’s brilliant performance, head coach Gareth Southgate said: ‘He writes his own script. The timing of his runs. It was a super piece of play in building up his game. I think all our forwards looked really good.”
On England’s overall performance, Southgate said: ‘I am confident we will score goals. When you play against a back five it is not easy to create chances and we did that.
“I liked that we had to suffer without the ball because that is an area we have worked on a lot this week. We were clearly much better at that than last week.’